Computing technology continues to evolve at a break-neck pace. Advanced multimedia applications, operating systems with integrated Internet access capability, and advanced speech recognition applications are but a few obvious examples of how far computing technology has evolved in recent years. One area, however, that has not kept pace with the other advances in computing technology lies in the initial setup and/or reconfiguration of such computing devices.
The current state-of-the-art of installing and configuring a computing system involves a collection of separate and disjointed steps and processes. Indeed, the process often requires the assistance of a technically competent technician to install and properly configure the operating system, Internet settings and applications on a computing system. Installation configuration information must be gathered and collected from a number of separate places, places that may only be known in specific locations or by specific people. Even when this initial set-up has been completed, additional time is required of the end-user to further personalize the operational settings for each of these elements of the computing environment.
Installation of the operating system (OS) typically requires a password for the computer, the name of the computer, and the type of network in which the computing system may participate. In addition, a prior understanding of which OS components and features of the operating system to enable is also required before completion of personalization and licensing options of the operating system occurs. Configuration and personalization of the Internet browser and other applications require a similar level of manual, user-interaction.
It will be appreciated that the information required to complete the installation/configuration/reconfiguration of a computing device is typically located on one or more corporate network(s), intranet networks, and/or a public network (e.g., the Internet), all of this information must be replicated or retrieved, sometimes on an individualized basis, to fully customizing configure computer. The disparate nature/sources of the information has heretofore stifled attempts to automate the configuration/reconfiguration process.
Thus, a system and related methods for configuring a computing device is required, unencumbered by the inherent limitations commonly associated with the prior art. Just such a solution is provided in the description to follow.